All I wanted today was pizza. Actually, that’s true most days. And I got really sad when I realized that it would take me at least a day to make the dough. But then I got over it really quick, because I actually made the dough, and it smelled JUST like pizza dough should. I also ate a grilled cheese, which in retrospect was probably what made me stop wanting pizza.

Another thing: The levain smelled beautiful this morning! Just like sourdough, if you concentrated the smell of like 10 loaves of sourdough into one bowl. Since today is day 4 (of the 5 days it takes for the dough to mature), I had to throw out MOST of my beautiful smelling levain before feeding it with more flour and water. It was especially sad today, since it seemed like the thing I threw away might actually not taste awful.

Pictures from the pizza dough are after the levain pictures!

The levain in the morning.

Removing all but 200 grams of the levain.

After adding 500 grams each of flour and water to the remaining levain.

Pizza dough:

Salt and yeast sprinkled over the mix of flour and water, which sat and fermented for 20 minutes before the other ingredients were added.

Pizza dough after folding in the salt and yeast.

Pizza dough after 1 hour of rest and being folded again.